The culture of Focus: HOPE is kind of hard to define. Focus: HOPE is composed of a diverse group of staff members, some coming directly from the community and some from elsewhere. In that way, the organization seems to be continuously debating whether or not what they are doing is actually for the community. It seems as though they are constantly struggling between whether or not what they do is for the community or simply for the organization. This conversations is continuous and truly in a lot of ways helps to foster an organization whose decisions are based more around the community.
One of the ways that this dichotomy manifests itself is in the Keep it 100 programs. On Friday, we hosted a Keep it 100 volunteer day in which we cleaned and painted curbs and sidewalks along 14th st., one of the corridors near the Focus: HOPE campus. While the day was actually productive, whether or not what we were doing was led or actually in the interest of the community was a topic of conversation that still arises even after the event. It does benefit the community, but also, engaging the community in a way that fosters activity seems as though it is hard to find.
Additionally, since Focus: HOPE is a very large community organization, their accountability to their funders plays a large role in their decisions, and for good reason. People often seem to struggle with the fact that decisions must be made to satisfy those that write grants and those in the community. It reflects a very complicated situation in all communities.
Below is a picture of volunteers cleaning curbs along 14th st.!!!! It was a good time and I connected with a lot of different people from Focus: HOPE. I also am now a part of the Neighborhood Network and have to do real things like write weekly reports! Not sure how that happened but like it’s cool. 
